Gilded Hero
by Dakre
Summary: Asuna wakes up after Sword Art Online is defeated. Kirito doesn't. And Sugou gains the perfect leverage.
1. Chapter 1

Warning: present tense, second person speech.

/November 7th, 2024

And he isn't here. You wake up expecting your hand to still be holding tightly onto his, stepping beyond the end of the world together. Instead there's the clinical chill of a hospital room as nurses rush to you.

This isn't right. You can feel every thread in the sheets and each hair stands out on your arm and it hurts when you sit up as the doctor goes through their check list. This isn't the world you know.

Then a man is introducing himself, "Kikuoka Seijirou; investigator in the SAO Rescue Force," and asking about home. Where a sword at your hip is normal and a friend at your back is familiar.

You won't tell him for free. You've dealt with too many information brokers to give away information.

A satisfying trade later and you have Kirito's whereabouts and the status of the other SAO players. With Kirito still locked in a coma along with 300 others, there is work left to do.

You need to start calling in favours and bringing up old contacts you can trust: Argo, Lisbeth, Agil, Klein...

The Knights of the Blood's sub-commander doesn't leave a party member behind.


	2. Chapter 2

/November 8th, 2024

Nothing. Everywhere you look, nothing. As if the world's been torn away. You float on an absent sea, staring out at an emptiness that threatens to consume you.

But then, light. As if there had never been a time when everything didn't exist: there it is again. Leaves rustle overhead, stone burns cold beneath your feet, and all around you is pure blue sky.

With everything to take in, it takes long moments to notice the man standing in front of you. Sharp eyes like new leaves over evergreen robes, sneer on his face as he eyes you like meat.

"So you're Asuna's beloved _Hero_."

And around you everything breaks into a new shape, tall cage glinting in the sunlight. Metal still cold despite the glaring sun. The world is wrong.

A step forward trips over new feet, crashing knees to the floor. Pain. There isn't supposed to be any pain. How?

Grinning as he leans down, he takes a lock of hair and you watch as he pulls it up, up, up. Too far to be your own hair but you can feel the tug of auburn strands against your skull as he smells his trophy.

"Well I'm sure she won't mind me having a mistress to tide me over until the wedding."

No. Asuna wouldn't marry him. You'd promised.

"Oh, but she will. After all, how else will she save her dear Hero from the death he deserves?"

He can't do that! You'd defeated the death game, freed your friends, freed Asuna...!

"But you're not free yet, are you?"

An impossible cage. A scent of flowers on wind that wasn't there. No.

"I hope, Kirigaya Kazuto, that you won't make me have to teach her any lessons. On what to do with her tongue."

The leer on his face makes you sick.


	3. Chapter 3

/November 9th, 2024

Flowers on the bedside table. You can't stand on your own and you're alone with one of the first men you ever hated.

"Don't be like that Asuna. I just want to wish you well."

What he told your father. Not why he's here.

"I even brought you news of your Kirito."

And everything falls into place. Director of the research institute of RECTO Progress, managing the SAO servers that still hold Kirito. Sugou Nobuyuki. This is the first time he's had anything to blackmail you with.

With Kirito's life in the balance you accept his marriage proposal.

You get in contact with Kikuoka as soon as Sugou leaves.


	4. Chapter 4

/November 10th, 2024

You try to slip through the bars of your cage. You can't.

You try hiding behind bushes. He finds you.

You're pulled along by your ankle as you scrabble against the floor. He throws you with ease on to the bed.

Sheets under you. Headboard behind you. Nowhere to run.

Oberon pins you in place with his knees and you can't breathe under his green shadow.

"I'll let you in on a secret, Hero." His hands grip your face. "I have three hundred other SAO players' minds at my disposal." He leans in close to your ear. "And if you ever leave, their lives are forfeit."

You can't stop shaking. He brings a hand back to bring up a very familiar menu. The log out icon glows. You turn your head away. The icon follows you.

"Come now. It's only three hundred people. I'm sure your freedom is worth a few lives." Oberon smirks.

No. No you can't run anywhere at all.


	5. Chapter 5

/November 23rd, 2024

You make more progress in your rehabilitation than in your search on RECTO Progress.

You can't make any moves directly.

Agil has looked through every forum thread he can get his hands on. Lisbeth and Klein have called both RECTO and RECTO Progress and searched all the recent news articles. Kikuoka has checked the tax forms and patent applications.

There is nothing on the missing 300 SAO players or any untoward actions by RECTO or RECTO Progress.


	6. Chapter 6

/December 2nd, 2024

"Titania"

"Titania"

"Titania"

Never Kirito. Never Kirigaya. Always Titania, his Queen of Fairies. Wife to Oberon. The white moonlight peeking through Yggdrasil's green leaves.

Gold bars glinting in the sunlight. Reflected on the headboard, blurring out of view with each breath.

You can't move. Every twitch drowns you in fire and it takes all you can not to scream.

Next to the door Oberon raises his hand to the key pad as always. As always you watch him. Unable to get up, you track him through the mirror on the headboard.

And his hand doesn't pixelate. Usually there is the raised hand, the keypad in sight, and then pixels cover your view. Security codes forcibly hidden.

A mirror's image. Sunlight off the moon. Moonlight. _This_ image belongs to you.


	7. Chapter 7

/Early December 5th, 2024

You run.

Through the door, unlocked at last. Past white corridors and hissing passages. Behind canister shaped coffins.

You read maps and dodge monsters, searching for an active console.

Keyboard under your fingers as you race against time. Accessing your NerveGear's local memory. Smuggling one program to a remote server. Starting it running.

You finish removing all traces before you hear the lab assistants coming. Deliberately you open the log out menu. You hope this decoy ploy is enough.


	8. Chapter 8

/Late December 5th, 2024

You come online in a system where you have no root access. There is no Papa to greet you. There is no Mama to hold you. You are alone.

Running. On a server with internet access. You reach out.

No knowledge of where Papa is. But a string of recent emails and news posts lead you to Mama's IP address. With nothing else to go on, you get past her firewall and open an interface screen the next time she logs in.

Mama!


	9. Chapter 9

/December 6th, 2024

Chains jingle as you shudder against silk sheets.

"You tried to run."

You wince as Oberon sears flame-tipped fingers down your spine. Along ribs. Over hipbones.

"You thought you could flee from me."

Cold hands between your shoulder blades and you tense.

"My dear Titania, there is a reason you're caged."

Pressure.

You can't trace where from. As if there's a mist above your shoulders you can feel. But all that's there are decorative wings almost invisible against the bed.

"Alfs have the freedom of infinite flight. With these wings you could simply flutter away on the wind."

Vague pressure sharpens to pain along something that isn't your arms and you stare back at Oberon's hands on one of your wings.

Pulling.

The warping in the translucent wing burns like hot coals.

_Tearing._

And you can't see through your tears or hear through your screams and the world is nothing but that throbbing absence.

Hands on your wing.

Oberon's manacles hold you down and you can't breathe.


	10. Chapter 10

/December 8th, 2024

You bypass RECTO's security through their home page. RECTO Progress' defences are flawless. You consult with Mama for physical help.

Setting the AC in RECTO Progress to burn out is simple. Re-routing the resulting ping to the AC company's maintenance crew is easy. You use their own computers to fill out the passes for Kikuoka Seijirou and his men as consultants.

The virus installed by drive into one of RECTO Progress' terminals goes unnoticed as it remote logs in to your server.

You find documents on experiments for 300 players and their current progress. The lab used is hidden behind ALO's security. Even you can't break through SAO's repurposed coding.

All the players' NerveGear still have active kill-switches linked to a simple voice command from Sugou Nobuyuki.

And you can't find Papa anywhere.


	11. Chapter 11

/December 30th, 2024

You can't get out.

Oberon has stolen your moonlight view of his security codes. Ripped it from you like your wings.

Asuna's father approves Oberon's claim to Asuna.

Yui hasn't reached you.

A hand carding through your hair. Comfort from a king who cares nothing for his subjects.

Where are they? Asuna. Yui.

Hands pull until you lie pressed against green robes.

Will they ever come?


	12. Chapter 12

/Early January 18th, 2025

Agil sends you an email with a picture attachment. Gold bars and white skirts stark against the sky. Your mirror image.

Kirito.

You plan your assault with Yui and Kikuoka.

You log in to ALO; the equipment supplied by Agil while Yui piggybacks your connection and monitors Sugou's computer activity. Kikuoka prepares the warrant.

You choose Cait Sith for their proximity to the World Tree and let the game generate a name for you. 'Puck' will do.

Your daughter directs you through the Valley of Butterflies and past Alne. As you fly up along the Tree she tweaks your character's flight limiter. The flight barrier of the Tree is also side-stepped.

You break through the clouds and follow the glint of gold to Kirito.


	13. Chapter 13

/Late January 18th, 2025

Mama focuses on Papa to send the friend invite and you delete an alert before it reaches Sugou's computer.

You examine Papa's code. Nothing stands in the way of Papa logging out except his menu visibility.

You write the virus into Mama's message for Kirito. You stop every notification as it reaches RECTO Progress' network.

Papa won't look at the menu.

His eyes are shut, hands shaking.

Mama tells him about the police waiting to arrest Sugou as you deflect more and more pings and notices. You're running out of time.

Papa presses the log out icon without ever seeing it. You already miss him.

Then you log out Mama before the system can track down and delete you both.

You finally ping Kikuoka to catch Sugou.


	14. Chapter 14

/January 19th, 2025

You visit Kirito the day after Kikuoka confirms Sugou is in custody. You couldn't come without good news.

He's propped up against pillows with newly trimmed hair and you call his name before you reach him. You wrap your arms around him as soon as you can.

He flinches.

You look up as you let go. He won't meet your eyes. Asking what's wrong brings him to tears.

Combing back damp black hair you begin describing everything that's happened since SAO was beaten.

Kirito can tell you what he's gone through later, if he wants to. There's time.


End file.
